Annual Report 2016-2017
Executive Board Term 2016 - 2017 President Cynthia Chircop Secretary General Julian Chircop Treasurer Jayson Williams Awareness and Education Officer Stef Gafa Communications Officer Bee Vella (Aug ‘16 - Oct ‘16)
Introduction President - Cynthia Chircop
It only seems like a short while ago that I was elected to the executive board in 2015, yet so much time has actually passed and now I’m writing the introduction to the second annual report i’ve compiled for We Are. Time does fly! It has been almost 7 years since We Are began, but it has done much since then and it has continued in its aims to be a voice for LGBTQI youths and students, on and off campus. On behalf of the executive of 2016-2017, I believe we have tried and hopefully succeeded in fulfilling the aims of the organisation; to be a safe space for youths and students, to educate and raise awareness on LGBT issues, to collaborate with other organisations and to represent youths and students. I am unable to select a highlight of our term but it would be between the IGLYO conference we co-hosted in September 2016, and our IDAHOT activities this year, as they were possibly the most important of our activities. Several challenges presented themselves this year which impacted the way the organisation works, but we always tried to organise activities to the best of our means. It seems like student activism is dying at university, but I hope more
students appreciate the value of being an active student outside their studies. Formal education may enrich your learning, but it is working with other students and developing new skills and experiences that enriches one’s character and fibre. Writing this introduction, I could not help but feel a mixture of emotions. I am proud of the work We Are has carried out over the years, and sad that my time in the executive has come to an end. It has been a mostly positive experience, and I wish the best of luck to the new executive. I bid adieu with a heavy heart as I exit student life and venture into the working world of adults, for now my watch has ended.
Sec Gen’s Message Secretary General - Julian Chircop
Those were the days, my friend. We thought it’d never end. But so they have and it’s time for our annual report. It is daunting that the year has passed but with good memories working on the team as the Secretary General. Although I had to juggle my studies with organisation work, it was a worthwhile experience working alongside the President. Although we struggled with a small executive, We Are had a great assortment of highlights as an organisation. We started with the IGLYO Annual Member’s Conference 2016, serving as local co-hosts with Gender Liberation Malta. As Sec-Gen, I wanted to increase our visibility by collaborating with various venues and other student organisations, such as MGRM, SDM, MMSA, LGBTI Gozo, Gender Liberation Malta, MGRM, Higher Secondary’s Diversity Group, and Hybrid.
My final remarks as a Sec-Gen is that I look forward to working with the new exec for 2017/18 as President. Keeping in mind the challenges we faced this year with not being familiar to new students and different faculties and departments within University, I wish to change that and bring new and past connections back.
Representation Cynthia Chircop & Julian Chircop
This year, there were several small developments in legislation and We Are continued to be active on the LGBTQI Consultative Council. At the end of 2016, a bill banning conversion therapy was approved by parliament. Around the same time, a bill ensuring prisoners were housed in a prison that reflects their gender identity. Most recently, in July, Marriage Equality Bill which allowed for same sex couples to join together in marriage, which was discussed before the general election. The IGLYO conference that We Are co-hosted with Gender Liberation and IGLYO was a huge success, bringing the largest number of participants to sunny Malta, attending the weekend with capacity building workshops and elections for the new IGLYO board. In our efforts with youth, We Are was present at Junior College and Higher Secondary for IDAHOT, collaborated with MGRM for their live-in activist building seminar, and we also had a consultation meeting with FOIPN on their policies for LGBTQI issues. With regards to our presence at University, We Are continued to
represent students in the Social Policy Council, Admin Forum and Events Forum meetings. We continued to be vocal not just on issues affecting LGBTQI students, but also other issues discussed in the meetings as well as proposals. Pride was organised this year again by ARC, and had to be postponed to September due to the general elections. The variety of activities by all collaborating NGOs during Pride Week, including our Film Night, attracted a diverse audience and came to a close with the colourful Pride celebrations. We had argued for Pride to be later than June year after year, and had been ignored on; this resulted in few youths and students attending because of exams. Pride in September was a win for youths and students; the change in date translated to the attendance for the Pride March, which was the highest it has ever been since the first march in 2004. Perhaps this will encourage the organisers to keep organising it in September.
Community Julian Chircop
Fresher’s Week brought new faces to the organisation and many laughs and conversations were enjoyed during our week of meeting new, ongoing and past students, as well as members from the general public. Halloween Night followed with the screening of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, with sweet candy and treats. Christmas was also a festive season with our Sparkles and Spirits event at Mona Liza Lounge, bringing members and students to relax with drinks and tasty finger food. I was also invited by the German Embassy to celebrate Germany’s Day of Peace in the presence of Her Excellency, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca. We initially organised a meeting every month for members, but stopped for exams and did not continue due to members being very busy and lack of attendance in the last two meetings.
Similar to our experience last year, there are definitely a lot of areas to improve. This could be summed up as mainly our presence and organising of events to build relationships with new students. The resignation of our communications officer and the lack of applicants to fill the role greatly impacted our communications and development and upkeep for events. This in addition to half the team being in their final year of studies also affected input greatly. The lack of activities at university thus affected the recruiting of new members, relying on the availability of the team members to be present.
Media & Communications Cynthia Chircop
This year, PR was handled by the Communications Officer up till their resignation end of October, after which it was handled by mainly myself with the aid of the others. Despite being handled by different people, the goal was the same; to maintain an informative relationship with our members and the general public. This was done through social media, email and a newsletter. Our social media was updated regularly, and Facebook followers have increased to 3,010; that’s about 300 new followers from last year. We used Mailchimp for newsletters again for convenience, but like last year, had the same problem of around 25% readership and it going to junkmail. We continued to use Instagram, but this was not kept as up to date as our Facebook page.
Facebook and email were our main tool in informing of events, but turnouts varied with the type of event and timing of the event. I hope that the new executive will have a communications officer on board for the whole term to keep a consistent tone of voice and regular upkeep of media.
Education & Awareness Stef Gafa & Cynthia Chircop
Starting off the year with fresher week, as always a main aim is to bring new faces to the organisation and ultimately inform individuals on the values, goals and missions of We Are. To help integrate this we set up daily themes; Media, Health, Sports, each day we had questions on several LGBT related issues, encouraging people to answer questions and handing out information. We worked with MMSA on the SCOPET seminar to deliver an interactive presentation on the necessity of LGBT rights and policies in relation to bullying and LGBT issues, as well as how students can support LGBT students. We also worked with MGRM on their activist training seminar for Rainbow Support Service where we gave a talk on the Maltese development of LGBT rights which was followed by an interactive timeline game to test the participants’ knowledge of Maltese LGBT rights and dates. In addition, throughout the year we held several online campaigns to mark significant days in our calendar. Some of these include: Trans awareness week, Spirit day and Bi awareness. Spirit Day was perhaps the most significant as we gathered a few organisations to take a photo with us to upload on Facebook.
To close off the scholastic year, we organised initiatives for IDAHOT at Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary Schoo, Junior College and University. This year, we wanted to try something different, so we designed a message “Say no to hate” and had them printed on paper tyvek bracelets. The aim was to give these out to students at the three mentioned institutions, speak to them about the significance of IDAHOT and how they can show their support and generate conversation by wearing these bracelets. At Junior College, we gave out just over a 100 bands, having engaged with as many students which we consider a success. Unfortunately, we could not continue at university due to the election debate. We continued with our tradition of making posters for IDAHOT at GCHSS, later exhibited at the school, and it was encouraging to see the diversity of messages and youths who took part in the initiative. GCHSS had a day dedicated to IDAHOT, where We Are was present to set up a stand, give out bracelets and aid MGRM in the workshop on LGBTQI issues.
Training & Development Cynthia Chircop
While we co-hosted the IGLYO conference, I also represented We Are as a member of IGLYO for the Annual Members’ Conference. The conference consisted of capacity-building workshops such as film-making and art in relation to identity, as well as workshops on education and policy papers. I also attended a workshop organised by Agenzija Zghazagh on communications and branding, and its uses and importance for a youth organisation. This workshop included discussing our organisation’s current communications, problems we encounter and how we wish to improve.
At university, I attended the KE/KPS seminar had 3 different talks; one on design thinking, a talk by Gabi Calleja on policy writing and a talk by Gayle Lynn Callus on statute writing. Unfortunately, as a team, we could not attend more training opportunities this year, but I encourage the new executive to attend training not just relating to LGBT issues, but also functions relating to the running of the organisation.
Financial Report Treasurer - Jay Williams Income and Expenditure report for the year ending 12/09/2017 Notes
Budget 2018
Actual 2017
Actual 2016
Receipts
(€)
(€)
(€)
Grants
1
50.00
0
0
Donations/ memberships
2
140.00
169.13
185.38
Miscellaneous
3
105.00
160.50
137.56
Total
295.00
329.63
322.94
Grants
50.00
0
1,963,00
Membership IGLYO
15.00
15.00
15.00
35.00
22.76
7.00
Stationery
14.89
14.89
29.92
Events
20.00
20.00
97.52
5
40.00
116.76
164.60
Total
154.89
189.41
2,441.64
Net Total
100.11
140.22
-1,954.10
Expenditure
Merchandise
Other
4
Financial Report Treasurer - Jay Williams
1. This year We Are did not manage to apply for any grants, however the newly elected Exec, should consider these to help with projects. 2. As shown above, this year the amount of donations collected and members was lower however during the year we had a very limited number of events to try to increase this amount. 3. Miscellaneous means amount gained from sales, which this year included cookies, bracelets, bookmarks, keychains, standard food and drinks as well as entry to events. The decision to make an entry fee alongside selling items at reasonable prices makes a lot of differences and in fact we managed to make more money than last year. 4. Merchandise costs were more than expected this year, however this was since not once did we are make key chains but bracelets were also made. 5. Other expenses include the cost of making new business cards – this was much needed and the new simple design means that it can be used with different Execs and will not need to be changed due to different roles in the exec/ number of exec members. Go daddy payments and wristbands. Which is why the expense being a lot more than expected.
Statement of Financial position as at 12/09/2017 Current Assets
Budget 2018
Actual 2017
Actual 2016
Cash (€)
600.32
520.21
379.99
Bank (€)
1,302.92
1,282.92
1,257.91
Total (€)
1,903.24
1,803.13
1,637.90
Timeline of Activities & Events Term 2016 - 2017 Year 2016
Year 2017
August • Beach ChillOut
January N/A
September • Bracelets & Buns • KE/KPS Seminar • IGLYO AMC ‘16 • Start of Freshers’ Week
February • Quiz Night LGBT History Month • MMSA SCOPET Session • A Danish Girl screening
October • Cont. Freshers’ Week • German Embassy Reception • Coming Out Day • Spirit Day • Human Library at UOM • All Hallow’s Reel • Resignation of Bee Vella from EB November • Agenzija Zghazagh Branding Workshop • Intersexion Screening • Trans Awareness Week • MGRM Live-In December • Sparkles & Spirits
March N/A April Leave Your Mark Conference May • IDAHOT @ GCHSS • IDAHOT @ Junior College
June N/A July • Marriage Equality Celebrations August • Marriage Equality Celebrations September • Pride Film Night • Pride March • AGM 2017